Collections
Medicate

Medicate is a unique collection uniting the history of the Pump Rooms as a former medical treatment centre and the Museum's collections of contemporary art and medical equipment and archives.

Still from 1+1=1 by Jordan Baseman

The works of art examine the physical, societal and psychological effects of disease on the person and the values and practices of medical science. It is important that some of the works draw directly from the artists' experience. The works are often deliberately challenging. Glassar and Wright's work question how our bodily appearance is shaped by illness or disease and we react to this. Hirst's and Coventry's work can be seen to question how the pharmaceutical and recreational drugs and foods we consume affect us physically.

Artists and the medical profession have shared a deep interest in the form and mechanics of the human body for centuries, often sharing the anatomy room and new discoveries. As art practice has diversified in the 20th century life drawing has declined. But since the late 1990s artists have been inspired by the new technology scientists use to visualize and explore the universe, often working in collaboration with them. Much of the work in this exhibition has been created through research and the advice of medical experts and patients.

The Medicate collection was created with the help of: the artists, funders; the Wellcome Trust, Arts Council of England, Resource/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, medical consultants; Mr Francis Wells, Professor Nick Spencer, Professor Martin Kemp, Anna Harrison, Sandra Percival and Gill Hedley.

The Collection

1+1=1 by Jordan Baseman
Set Convervation Piece by Christine Borland
The Last Supper by Damien Hirst
Dying is Not Good For You by Jason Oddy
Silence by Lyndall Phelps
“I” by Alexa Wright
Sick Sticks by Laura Glassar
Garden by Tania Kovats
Inhaler and Crack Bottles by Keith Coventry
Catherine Long by Marc Quinn